


I figured it all to be love...

by Etwas_Schlau



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Emotional Baggage, Eventual Romance, F/F, Gangs, Gun Violence, Organized Crime, POV Third Person, Present Tense, Running Away, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-01 13:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11487408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etwas_Schlau/pseuds/Etwas_Schlau
Summary: ...but this isn't lovelyA college dropout skeptic and a runaway teenage cynic; they meet by chance in the middle of a country road at five in the morning. The rest, as they say, is history. But, oh god, who would have imagined it would end up like this?





	1. Blasphemy

**Author's Note:**

> **Note:** I do not own Steven Universe. All rights to the cartoon and its characters belong to Rebecca Sugar.
> 
> yeah so i wrote this during a bad time and i don't plan on finishing it. thank you for all the wondeful feedback and i'm sorry to leave it incomplete -e.s.

_Sing a song but don't believe_  
_Blasphemy is just for me_  
_Hypocrite, take your pick_  
_Cause the poison's on my lips_

_-Blasphemy, Tyler Jospeh  
_

* * *

 

It’s late. _Really_ late. Lapis had lost track of time when her phone died around two. She doesn’t know how long she’s been walking or where exactly she is, but she doesn’t care. The road is long and empty; the last car she’d seen had passed almost an hour ago, give or take.

The cigarette dangling between her lips is almost finished, embers growing close to the filter. She spits it to the ground and snuffs the cherry out beneath her heel before reaching into her jacket pocket to withdraw another, lighting it promptly. She breathes in her first puff from the fresh cigarette and coughs violently, her stomach turning and clenching painfully.

Without warning her mouth is moist with saccharine saliva and she can feel the bile rising in her throat. It only takes two gut-wrenching heaves to send the rum she had drunk earlier shooting from her esophagus and into the grass beside the road. She falls to her knees, retching obscenely, and another wave hurls onto the ground. She spits weakly, breathing shaky, before wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her hoodie and standing, returning to her walk on unsteady feet.

Her tongue tastes sour and her throat burns. Her lit cigarette hangs in her fingers, ashes smoldering slowly. She doesn’t have it in her to smoke it. Her head feels fuzzy and her heart aches, eyes stinging as she blinks back sudden tears. The flat fields and sparsely wooded lowlands around Lapis seem to vanish from her vision and she claws at her eyes, willing away the shameful liquid searing at her eyelids.

The world suddenly feels very small, invisible walls closing in and smothering her. Before she can think otherwise, her course diverges from the chipped white paint at the side of the pavement to the yellow center line. The next car that comes, she decides, will finish her wretched existence. Nobody adheres to the speed limit anyway, way out in the country where no one pays attention and nothing matters.

She walks in a haze, mind buried beneath layers of dirt and cold water. Her stolen cigarette returns to rest between her coffee-stained teeth, smoke digging into her lungs like an animal’s fangs. In the distance, she sees a pair of large, off-white headlights crest a hill and she smirks brokenly in the starlight, a sickly satisfaction settling in her gut. The car is going fast, she knows it won’t be long. The electric wires strung along the road shine and Lapis closes her eyes, lifting her arms as she waits for impact.

All she gets, however, is the screeching squeal of car brakes and a shrill, reedy voice yelling, “What the hell is wrong with you!”

Her exhausted eyes crack open again, instantly squinting in the glare of the coupe’s high beams. The car is only a few feet away from her, door opening and a short figure stepping out.

“Did you hear me?” they snap, startled and angry. “What are you doing in the middle of the road at five in the morning? You scared the shit out of me!”

Lapis glances down at her own spread posture then back at the driver’s dark silhouette. It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?

The stranger strides forward, more visible in her car’s headlights. She’s pale-skinned with circular glasses too large for her face and windswept peroxide blonde hair, brows furrowed and lips parted in a grimace. She leans close to Lapis, snapping her fingers in the other girl’s face.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

The brunette recoils from the short woman. “Yeah?” she replies slowly, annoyed.

The blonde hums out a disdainful noise and wrinkles her nose, placing her hands on her ample hips. “Is that alcohol on your breath?”

“What are you, my mother?” Lapis retorts, voice hollow and devoid of emotion.

“No, I’m a sensible human being,” she mutters, sighing in exasperation. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen,” the teenager lies reflexively.

The woman makes a strangled noise, wiping her hands down her face. “Listen, since you’re clearly in no state to do so yourself, I’ll drive you home. Where do you live?”

“Nowhere.”

“Wha-? What do you mean, nowhere!?”

“As of six hours ago, I’m on my own. Nothing but me, the land, and twenty-seven ounces of Stroh 80 rum,” Lapis quips, patting the grey duffel bag slung over her left shoulder.

Green painted fingernails pinch the bridge of the stranger’s nose as she huffs out a deep, irritated breath. “Alright,” she says more to herself than Lapis before motioning to the car. “Get in.”

The brunette blinks. “What?”

“You’re coming with me.”

“Why in hell would I-”

“I’m not leaving some homeless kid in the middle of nowhere! Now get in before I drag you in.”

Lapis weighs her options for a moment. A place to stay sounds incredibly tempting seeing as she has nowhere else to go and no vehicle to travel in. For a moment her common sense warns that the small, mysterious stranger could easily be a murderer. She then shrugs to herself; it’s a win-win situation.

She trudges over to the bright red Pontiac, yanking the passenger side door open and plopping into the seat, throwing her bag at her feet. The blonde joins her in the driver’s seat, shutting her door and shifting into gear.

“No smoking in my car,” she orders, nodding at the cigarette in Lapis’ mouth. The teenager reflexively pushes the lit end into her jeans, ignoring the singing of the fabric. The woman notices but says nothing.

The ride is quiet, car engine roaring and rumbling deeply as they drive through the countryside. After some time, the sky begins to lighten and the sun gradually peeks above the eastern horizon. Lapis feels sleep begin to creep into the corners of her mind as the scenery outside becomes progressively more urban and developed.

“You never told me your name,” the blonde states quietly, the first words spoken since she reprimanded the girl’s smoking.

She shrugs. “‘s Lapis.”

The woman nods. “I’m Peridot.”

Lapis doesn’t respond, simply presses against the car door, head resting on the window. SIlence settles over the car like a blanket and she closes her eyes, exhaustion setting in. For the first time in over a day, she falls away into slumber and welcomes the darkness that greets her there.


	2. Slowtown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> many thanks to everyone who left feedback on the first chapter, your enthusiasm keeps me inspired<3

_Hey, hey, wouldn't it be great, great_  
_If we could just lay down and wake up in Slowtown_  
_Today, day, I want to go away, way_  
_'Cause things are too fast now_  
_I want to be in Slowtown_

_-Slowtown, Twenty One Pilots_

* * *

 

“Lapis.”

“Hey, Lapis. We’re here.”

“Come on, wake up!”

Peridot pinches the bridge of her nose, sighing heavily. Slipping from the car, she walks around to the passenger side, glaring at the girl dead asleep with her face pressed against the window. The blonde bluntly throws the door open, sending Lapis crashing unceremoniously to the wet grass.

Crumpled on the ground cradling her head, the brunette grunts lowly before speaking. “What time is is?”

“Seven in the morning. Get up.”

“ _Seven_!? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Hey, I’m not the one who took a drunken stroll at five am,” Peridot defends bitterly, fiddling with her disorganized keyring. “Bring your things in and I’ll give you something for your hangover.”

Converse-clad feet stomp up rickety wooden steps, jamming the building key into an ancient brass deadbolt. Peridot impatiently drums her fingers on the door frame as Lapis unsteadily shoulders her duffel and follows, eying the apartment complex marked 1626 with suspicion.

A narrow flight of stairs later, they arrive at a rotting wooden door with a tarnished metal six haphazardly nailed to the front and Peridot unlocks it silently. She hesitates for a moment and red flags wave in Lapis’ weary mind, but before she can take action Peridot is rearing back and ramming her shoulder into the wood, shoving it open from the half-collapsed door jamb.

Lapis squints in the dusky darkness of the apartment. Peridot throws her keys on the faux marble countertop cramped in the corner between her short, note-covered refrigerator and miniature stove. The brunette feels a cold, bleak pity settle in her chest as her detached cobalt eyes evaluate the compact living space.

She almost scoffs at herself. Living space? The apartment before her was hardly anything, a small studio with less area than the living room of her parents’ place. For a moment the thoughts in her head feel foreign, referring to that prison of a house as anything other than home.

But it wasn’t home for her, was it? It hadn’t been for quite some time. An abject voice in the back of her head reminds her in a foul whisper that this place isn’t home either. It’s a shell of a residence as it stands, bare ivory walls speckled with dents and chipping paint. The corner opposite the tiny kitchen sports a squat square desk crudely painted black with a chunky brick of a laptop resting atop its unfinished surface. A rusted lawn chair sits beside it and next to that is a stained comforter that appears older than Lapis herself, spread out on the floor by the radiator under the window.

“Lapis?” Peridot’s worried voice finally pierces her reverie. The girl’s cactus green eyes are clouded with confusion and concern and Lapis’ gut churns like the ocean in a storm. She feels small and helpless all over again under the condoling, almost scared gaze. She knew this would happen, it always does. Nobody expects an average teenager like her to be anything other than the cookie-cutter idea of adolescence everyone above the age of twenty harbours. The moment she shows anything contradictory to the illusions, the same reaction plays out like a black and white film.

Fear. Disgust. Wonder and apprehension. Nosiness, concern, interest sprouting into misplaced sympathy and pity. It makes her want to tear her hair out, to lash out, to scream and scream until everything else disappears and she’s left alone like always. Like she hates but wants to be. _Needs_ to be.

She scarcely feels herself stepping backwards, stumbling, back hitting the wall in the hallway. Her hands are reaching, grasping, fumbling for something that isn’t there. She feels like she’s facing a bloodthirsty lion but she can’t run away, her legs are collapsing beneath her and the world is spinning and-

“Lapis!” Small hands are gripping her shoulders, wide emerald eyes demanding attention. Her thoughts slowly fade into the background like she’s resurfacing from water, heart pounding as she returns to her surroundings. She meets Peridot’s gaze with shame, expecting to be sent back to the curb after a needless, irrational panic like that. Embarrassment surges up her spine and into her skull and she criticises herself bitterly. What had even prompted the episode? A small apartment? She feels stupid and ridiculous, breaking eye contact with the other girl kneeling in front of her.

“Hey,” the blonde murmurs, thin voice oddly low and soft if somewhat awkward. “What’s... wrong?”

A fresh wave of terror washes over Lapis at the question, eyes widening, and Peridot instantly backpedals. “Sorry, stupid question,” she remarks, lifting her hands from the brunette’s shoulders. “Are you okay?”

The teenager surveys the somewhat round face watching her, trying to weigh the intentions behind it. She’s just met this person; she doesn’t know her from Adam, and yet here she is, trying to comfort her down from a panic attack. _Why?_ she wonders skeptically, _Some sense of duty or obligation? She doesn’t owe me anything…_

She nods faintly. “Yeah. I- I’m just… I’m just, ah, really tired.”

The uncharacteristic compassion in Peridot’s eyes vanishes almost as abruptly as it had appeared, replaced with an air of impartial disbelief. She turns her face away from Lapis and mutters under her breath before standing, “Yeah, like that one would work on me…”

She leans down, extending a hand to help the girl up. Lapis only stares at the friendly gesture, wounded pride refusing the aid. The blonde sighs. “I’ll get you some Alka Seltzer for your hangover.” She spins around, slipping back into her dimly sunlit apartment and leaving the door open.

Lapis’ heart finally calms. Her head is pounding; she hadn’t realized how bad her hangover was until Peridot had mentioned it. The large hall window brightens as morning sun reaches out from behind the clouds, casting bright rays into the apartment complex. The corridor is dirty but quiet and the girl watches glowing particles of dust float by her in spiraling, roundabout patterns.

She hears water running from in the apartment, effervescent tablets fizzing loudly like a faraway swarm of bees. Her lips curve into something akin to a smile. The world is awakening and she feels somehow better, if minutely so. She stands. She breathes. And she steps into the stranger’s tiny home to face the day’s new circumstances, for better or for worse.


	3. Under the Bridge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait, a storm recently killed my modem and it took 3 days for a new one to be shipped. anyway, enjoy this rare instance of happy Lapis before we get back to our regularly scheduled angst

_Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner_  
_Sometimes I feel like my only friend_  
_Is the city I live in, the city of angels_  
_Lonely as I am, together we cry_

_-Under the Bridge, Red Hot Chili Peppers_

* * *

 

Lapis keeps her eyes on the worn black carpeting, nursing her Alka Seltzer as Peridot shuffles around the other side of the room. The drink tastes salty but she chokes it down anyway, hoping it will soothe the ache in her skull.

The silence in the studio is tense and thick with unasked questions. The brunette finishes the last of her effervescent, face scrunching at the sour tang, and places the glass on the floor. A thin white pillow suddenly lands on Lapis’ lap. She glances up at Peridot in confusion.

“What is this for?” she grunts.

“Sleeping. If you want.” The blonde steps to the rickety lawn chair at her desk, sitting down and booting up her laptop before continuing. “I work the graveyard shift so I sleep through the afternoon. You don’t have to do the same if you don’t want, though,” she adds speedily.

Lapis eyes the fraying pillowcase with apprehension. There doesn’t seem to be much to do at Peridot’s place with no television or much of anything, really. She reaches across herself to unzip her bag, withdrawing her partial bottle of Stroh rum. She unscrews the cap and lifts the alcohol to her lips, taking a long swig and groaning at the foul taste.

“Day drinking already?”

The brunette shoots a glare at the woman staring at her from the corner.

“As if that’s your business,” she retorts spitefully, chugging another mouthful of the foul-tasting liquor.

From her position on the floor, Lapis can hear Peridot muttering under her breath. “...business, some nerve… I took her in.... Ungrateful…”

She rolls her eyes, ignoring the other woman as she digs in her bag once more for her ancient PC, pressing the power button sharply. She disinterestedly examines the chipped remnant of blue nail polish on her fingers as the computer turns on, running the usual opening programs. At her desktop pulls up, the ‘no connection’ icon on her taskbar forces her to direct her attention back to Peridot.

“What’s your wifi password?”

The blonde doesn’t move her attention from her computer screen to respond. “Jasperisaclod1. No spaces.”

Lapis types in the code silently. She doesn’t know who Jasper is and she doesn’t care; she has no desire to learn about Peridot’s life. Connected to the network, the teenager pulls up a browser tab and stares blankly at the dim, dirty laptop display. She has the entire internet at her disposal but boredom permeates her mind anyway.

Her cold blue eyes travel across the bland walls with hollow detachment. She hadn’t planned for this; she’d expected to spend time on the streets, moving from place to place like a bum. Riding the rails, as her father would have said. She hadn’t predicted running into someone like Peridot and being taken in by a total stranger. What was the plan now? Was she just going to sponge off someone she didn’t even know? Someone who looked like they were barely making it by in a three hundred-fifty square foot studio on the poorer side of the city?

A shudder runs through Lapis and she zips her hoodie, stuffing her hands in her pockets. Eyes defocusing, she feels herself slip uncomfortably into her tumultuous thoughts. A sourness knots in the pit of her stomach and she clenches her fists in the fabric of her jeans, teeth raking anxiously over her bottom lip.

She’s torn from her thoughts, however, by a cry from Peridot. Gaze snapping upward, Lapis sees the blonde staring intensely at her computer with a cheap headset perched on her head, tousling her gelled platinum locks. She vehemently clicks the mouse wired into the laptop, other hand traveling across the keyboard.

“No, no, no!” she barks seemingly at no one. “Hey, it’s because I’m lagging, you clod!”

The brunette blinks in surprise. _Is she really…?_

“I’ll show you! You clods haven’t won yet!” she bites into the microphone extending from the right side of her headphones, outwardly forgetting the other person in the vicinity.

 _She is…_ “Wow,” Lapis breathes quietly, raising her eyebrows in disbelief and disdain.

“Ah! That’s friendly fire! Yes it is! Yes, it _is_! It doesn’t have to be a shooter to be friendly fire!”

With a disgruntled huff, the teenager rummages through an outer pocket of her duffel to retrieve her earbuds. Pulling up a youtube tab of her favorite punk rock playlist, she blasts the music in her ears to drown out the noise, pulling her computer closer as she lays down on the stiff straw floor mat. She stuffs the flattened pillow of Peridot’s under her head, covering her head with arm.

The alcohol in her belly might not have helped her hangover, but it warms her with a tingling buzz, soothing her in her odd new environment. Her eyelids soon droop and she curls into a ball as she settles into a comatose sleep.

**~*~**

Lapis’ eyes crack open in pitch darkness. To say her head aches doesn’t even scratch the surface; it feels like someone threw a screamo metal concert in the confines of her skull. Her right arm is stiff, sandwiched between her head and something hard and unforgiving. She rolls over and slightly startles herself as her side thuds against an unseen barrier.

Her eyes get lost in the inky blackness surrounding her for quite some time, mind hazy and peaceful in the blank realm between dreams and reality. For a blissful moment there’s nothing and no one, just the steady thudding of her heart in her chest and a subtle, comfortable warmth cocooning her. She yawns quietly and stretches her sluggish limbs, fleeting memories of the dreams she had dreamt slipping from her mind like smoke in the wind.

Her eyelids sink and slither closed for a tired second as she breathes deeply through her nose, very aware of the feeling of her chest rising and falling. The intense hammering behind her forehead slowly returns until it consumes her, leaving space for no other thoughts. With a grunt, she shuffles and pushes herself to a sitting position and only then does she fully wake.

There’s something resting over her, coarse and weighty, and she pushes it away, cold air hitting her and chilling her very bones. She remembers where she is and what had happened, recalling leaving her laptop open beside her. She fumbles blindly in the dark, hands roaming the carpet to no avail. She growls in frustration and stands shakily, head swimming. She dumbly pats the wall beside her in search of a light switch.

She huffs and carefully steps through the room towards what she thinks is the front door. She curses as the corner of the oven rams into her hip bone. Wrong. She does, however, find a switch under her fingers as she probes the backsplash of the counter.

Flicking it on, the apartment is then bathed in washed-out artificial light and Lapis squints in irritation. Vision adjusting, she catches sight of a wrinkled scrap of notebook paper taped to the refrigerator. She snatches it from its place, glaring down at the scrawling handwriting.

> _Lapis,_
> 
> _I’m leaving for work. My shift_
> 
> _is 9pm to 5am. (Ironic, huh?)_
> 
> _You can help yourself to_
> 
> _anything in the fridge and_
> 
> _cupboards. If you leave the_
> 
> _apartment, the spare key is_
> 
> _on the counter.  
>    
>  _
> 
> _P.S: I apologize if I disturbed_
> 
> _you earlier. I’m not used to_
> 
> _having houseguests._
> 
> _-Peridot_

Lapis crumples the note in her fist, tossing it in the trash disinterestedly. Hangover demanding her attention, she leans down to the sink and drinks directly from the faucet, grimacing at the taste of the heavily fluoridated city water. Her bladder suddenly reminds her that she needs to find the bathroom and she slips through the door ajar next to the kitchen area.

The room is cramped but neat, walls painted a faded greenish-blue. The shower is tiled with cheap fiberglass coloured an atrocious shade of pink, almost translucent white curtain pulled neatly to one side. The sink and toilet are tiny, positioned against opposite walls. A small storage closet is jammed next to the shower but Lapis decides not to pry.

She quickly does her business and washes her hands in cold water (because the sink’s hot knob won’t turn despite her most valiant efforts.) She scans the washroom for a towel, though none appear to be present so she wipes her hands on the cheap green window curtain that clashes horribly with the room’s already distasteful colour scheme. That’s at least one thing she knows about Peridot; the girl has no eye whatsoever for interior design.

Light from beyond the glass catches her eye and she pushes the cloth to the side of its slim metal rod. Headlights from a car on the road illuminate the dark night outside, vehicle speeding far too fast to be legal on the narrow residential street. Lapis stares out the window for a moment as the red glow of tail lights fades. She hadn’t gotten a chance to see the region Peridot lived in on the ride there given the impromptu nap in her Pontiac.

Her mind wanders to the key mentioned in the note. Lapis contemplates things for a moment; is it really wise to wander around an unfamiliar neighbourhood at night? After all, it _is_ past nine o’clock...

Wait a minute.

“I slept for fourteen hours!?” she exclaims to herself in shock. Dragging an exasperated hand through her unkempt dark locks, she makes up her mind. Just as she’s about to step into the main room, though, a second paper pasted on the medicine cabinet mirror catches her eye.

> _P.S.S: I think you’ll need these_
> 
> _-Peridot_

Beneath the scribbled lettering is an arrow pointing to a pair of round orange pills enclosed under a piece of tape. _Ibuprofen_. Lapis makes a derisive noise in the back of her throat but snatches the tablets from their plastic prison, swallowing them with a mouthful of sink water.

Striding to the kitchen, Lapis pockets the light metal key on the countertop and treads to the front door. Undoing the deadbolt, she she turns out the lights before leaving the apartment, locking the bolt behind herself. She hurries down the creaky stairs and out of the complex as quietly as she can; she has no idea what kind of neighbours Peridot has.

The night air is cool but not unpleasant. Lapis tucks her hands in her jacket pockets and starts walking at a leisurely pace. The street is thin and crowded with parked cars, crumbling in many places. She can tell immediately her assumption about the poor side of the city was correct; the area looks like what her family would call a ghetto. Not that she gives a damn about what they would have to say about her new lodgings; they lost the privilege of her consideration years ago.

The girl abruptly turns onto the nearest road, leading away from housing into what appears to be a more business-oriented precinct. The closest establishment, a small family-owned restaurant, is closed up and dark, but from there the road is dotted with lit buildings inviting customers in. Lapis passes a pawn shop getting ready to close, an electronics store, a sound equipment shop, and a small diner before changing direction again.

She feels more at ease than she’s felt in ages as she wanders the suburb. Churches, auto parts stores, storage units, the community appears to be a largely populated area despite the old-style architecture. She sees small groups of people walking, talking, and laughing together and her heart seems to shake off a pound of bricks as she blends into the foreign town.

She stops after some time at a large thrift store. A thought strikes Lapis’ and she checks her back pocket. Surprisingly enough, her wallet is still there, so she wastes no time exploring the shop. Racks of second hand clothes, shelves of children’s toys, and a plethora of furniture greet her inside the store. She browses lazily for some time, not planning on buying anything.

 _Now is not the time for clothes shopping,_ she thinks to herself as she fervently tries to ignore an alluring cobalt and navy blue halter crop top hanging on the nearest display. Lapis glares bitterly down at her torn jeans and old hoodie; she’s a mess and she knows it. She hasn’t paid much of any attention to her appearance in months, everything’s just seemed unnecessary and exhausting.

But an idea suddenly strikes the brunette and she smirks. There _is_ one thing she can do…

She recalls having seen a plaza sign for a nearby Kroger and leaves the thrift shop promptly, starting on a course to the grocery store. It takes almost half an hour to walk there and the activity on the road is starting to die down noticeably. Upon reaching the store, she walks through the automatic doors without bothering to take a shopping cart. She knows she won’t need it.

She beelines to the area labeled ‘drink mix’ and grabs a few packets of blue Kool-Aid. She swiftly detours to the cleaning aisle to pick up a shower cap, a drain plug, and a roll of paper towels. Returning to the front of the store, the only registers open are self-checkout and Lapis is glad to be alone. She scans and bags her items and her total comes to about fifteen dollars. Withdrawing her wallet from her pocket, she slowly counts her money for the umpteenth time since leaving over a day ago.

She has almost three hundred dollars in cash, courtesy (mainly) of snatching bills from relatives’ purses. She knows the padding will help but without a job it won’t last long. Shaking away negative thoughts, she pays with a twenty and puts away the change, grabbing her sack of goods and slipping back onto the street. She walks for some time on the road labeled Lafayette Avenue until it converges with a wide, but mostly empty, state route.

Ducking into a gas station convenience store, Lapis turns her attention to the skinny, white-haired boy behind the counter.

“Do you have a bathroom I can use?” she asks bluntly.

The young man hesitates and she can almost feel him preparing to request she buy something first, but he surprises her by quickly offering up a shiny silver key attached to a rectangular piece of cardboard.

“It’s around back. Make sure to bring back the key,” he mutters with a voice much deeper than one would expect from his appearance.

Lapis nods dimly and pushes back out the door, rounding the side of the building where a single unisex washroom awaits. She unlocks the door and steps inside, grimacing under the fluorescent lighting. She drops the key by the sink as she rustles in her plastic bag for the drink mix and rubber plug. She runs the hottest water the cracked porcelain sink can muster and shoves the stopper in the drain before tearing open the Kool-Aid packs, pouring the sugar crystals into the rising water.

The running faucet dissolves the powder easily and the sink is soon full to the edges with cloudy blue liquid. Lapis leans down and dunks her hair in the solution, massaging the colouring into her thick locks. She knows it will take a while to fully dye, so she stays bent over, head in the water until her neck aches. Pulling her shower cap from the bag, she dips it in the sink, filling it with Kool-Aid before stuffing her hair into it.

The cap’s elastic band isn’t airtight and blue dye dribbles down the sides of Lapis’ face once she stands upright. She idly dabs at the drips with paper towels as she settles onto the grimy bathroom floor, forearms resting on her bent knees and back pressed against the cool wall.

She doesn’t know how much time passes. Twenty minutes, thirty. She feels sleepy in a tranquil sort of way, usually rampant thoughts frozen in time as she placidly gazes at the dirty wall tiles by the toilet. Liquid slowly creeps down the back of her neck and soaks into the fabric of her jacket. The inside of the grey hood is almost certainly stained blue by now, but she can’t bring herself to care.

Almost forty minutes later she finally stands, bending over the sink and removing the shower cap. Beads of Kool-Aid glide across her her forehead and she reaches into the now cold dye solution to pull the plug holding it there. The fluid begins to drain with a gurgling snarl and Lapis watches the azure drink mix swirl down the pipe like a picturesque ocean whirlpool. She lowers her head under the faucet and rinses the sticky sugar from her newly cobalt-pigmented hair, patting herself dry with more scrunched towels.

Collecting her things, Lapis stuffs the blue stained shower cap in the small garbage can by the door, covering it with balled-up papers. As she washes her hands she notices the ceramic of the sink is irreversibly tinted teal but she shrugs. It isn’t her sink, is it? Before she departs, she glances in the mirror to see the results of her excursion.

Her hair is once more dyed a striking shade of sapphire, framing her face with colour. Her temples and ears are also splotched with a denim hue, but she reasons to deal with it later. She grins for a brief second, satisfied with her new look. New life, new Lapis. No rules.

She darts out of the bathroom and back into the main store, dropping the cardboard keychain on the counter where the same albino cashier stands, playing a game on his smartphone.

“Here’s your key,” she remarks blatantly with no expression.

She spins on her heel and leaves almost before she hears the man comment, “Radical.”

Back on the windy road, Lapis contentedly wanders back the way she came, noting recognizable bread crumb landmarks like the thrift store and a lawnmower repair shop. The night having progressed, the town seems deserted now, not a soul around. The businesses that were open on her first passing are now closed, lights off and doors locks. The silence is somewhat eerie as Lapis turns onto the road with the small restaurant and pawn shop and she’s relieved to be close to home. Fatigue is setting into her limbs and all she wants is to be back in the studio where it’s peaceful and safe. Apartment building 1626 soon comes into view and she quickens her pace.

She stomps up the old wooden staircase leading to the front door and sheathes Peridot’s key in the lock. She pivots it to the left just like the blonde woman had earlier, but it doesn’t work. Lapis furrows her brown in confusion. The key won’t fully turn and the bolt doesn’t unlock. She shoves at the heavy wood, thinking maybe it’s stuck like the door to the apartment was.

But then it strikes Lapis like a lightning bolt; Peridot had left the key to the apartment, but not the building. She violently kicks the door and swears loudly, exhaling into a tight hand. Frustrated, the girl plops down on the stairs, resting her chin in her hands. The clock at the gas station had said it was midnight and that was about thirty minutes ago. Remembering the contents of the note from the fridge, Lapis hopelessly realizes she’ll have to wait around for over four and a half hours before Peridot will return from work.

Digging in her her wallet, the teenager takes out an ancient clothes store gift card she had gotten for her birthday almost two years prior. She’d heard about the credit card trick for lock picking long ago (and even used it once or twice,) but given her age she doesn’t have a credit card, so the gift certificate will have to do. She kneels down, at eye-level with the dead bolt, and jams the plastic between the door and the jamb. She braces the card with her free hand, pressing down hard in an effort to undo the lock.

Instead of unlocking the bolt, however, the gift card pops right through the sliver of open air and clatters to the floor inside the building lobby.

“Son of a bitch!” she hisses loudly, punching the door frame.

Without warning, someone clears their throat obnoxiously from behind Lapis. The girl whirls around in fear and surprise, indigo eyes locking with the fierce amber orbs of a towering, muscular woman with dark, vitiligo-blemished skin.

“Having trouble breaking in there, Blue?”


	4. Girls Just Want to Have Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fff this chapter goes a lot of different ways but I'm not editing it anymore lmao

_I come home in the morning light_  
_My mother says when you gonna live your life right_  
_Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones_  
_And girls they wanna have fun_  
_Oh girls just want to have fun_

_-Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper_

* * *

 

_Shit, shit, shit…_

Panic rises in Lapis’ chest, heart in her throat. Her brain is frantically searching for an escape but she’s cornered against the door by the intimidating stranger. The athletic woman is easily twice her size and her eyes have a predatory glint to them as if she’s planning to eat Lapis alive.

“I- I live here!” she blurts before she can stop herself. “I swear I’m not breaking in, I just forgot the building key on the way out. See, this is the key to my apartment!” Lapis hurriedly extends a shaky palm, showing off the only evidence she has to counter supposed ill intentions.

The unreasonably tall woman raises an eyebrow and straightens her back, hands on her hips. “Oh yeah?” she retorts, tone challenging. “Which apartment’s yours, then?”

“Six! Apartment six on the second floor!”

“Liar! Peridot Olivine lives there!” the stranger spits, expression a confusing canvas of smugness and rage.

Lapis nods furiously at the mention of Peridot. “Y-yeah! It’s not actually my apartment, she just took me in! This is her spare key! She left for work and forgot to leave me a key for the building. Please, I was just trying to get back home!” She might be embarrassed at the way she’s pleading were she not too scared to think straight.

“Hmm,” the woman grumbles, eying Lapis up and down. “Why would she take in some dirty runt like you?”

“She found me walking in the road drunk and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

She huffs out a laugh, rolling her eyes. “That does sound like Peridot… Alright, you’re off the hook.” The ash blonde digs in her pocket for a moment before withdrawing her own key, reaching past Lapis to unlock the door. She pushes her way in and motions for the girl to go in first. The teen wastes no time slinking into the building as the stranger follows. She sheepishly picks up the gift car laying askew on the floor and slips it back into her wallet.

The two ascend the stairs together in silence until the taller woman speaks up, “My name’s Jasper, by the way.”

“Ohh,” Lapis replies softly, suddenly understanding the key to Peridot’s internet network. She is a bit impressed that the she would be friends with someone like her, though.

Jasper narrows her eyes, shooting the younger woman a look. “What?”

Lapis waves her hand casually. “Just, I get Peridot’s wifi password now.”

“Why, what is it? She keep changing it so I can’t use it.” The blonde crosses her arms in tandem with her words, almost pouting.

“Jasperisaclod1,” the girl recites with a snicker.

“Hey! Oh, I’m going to squeeze the life out of her when she gets home for that…”

Lapis finds herself chuckling and snorting. The woman isn’t nearly as frightening as she had seemed at first; she seems to get along with her effortlessly. They then arrive at apartment six and Lapis stops, moving to unlock the door before a beefy hand on her shoulder stops her.

“Hey, what’s your name, Blue?”

“Lapis,” she supplies simply, turning around to watch the other woman’s face as she speaks.

“Well Lapis, do you wanna hang at my place for a while? I have beer and an Xbox,” she prods with a hopeful look.

Lapis nods after a moment of pause. “I don’t have anything better to do.”

Jasper breaks into a catlike grin. “Sweet! I think you’ll like my roommate, she’s cool like me,” she quips with a wink as the sifts through her keys to find the one to her apartment, number seven.

Lapis follows the brawny woman into her living room, happy to have made a new friend so quickly. She smiles as she graciously accepts a cold can of beer fresh from Jasper’s fridge. _Maybe staying here might not be so bad after all..._

**~*~**

Peridot trudges up the stairs, knee aching. The hall is dim, sun still hiding beneath the horizon. As she slots her key in her door, she hears raucous laughter from the adjacent apartment and rolls her eyes. _Looks like Jasper’s already up…_ she thinks bitterly.

“Lapis, I’m back,” she calls into the room as she steps inside. She gets no response, however, and feels worry buzz awake in the back of her skull.

“Lapis?” she repeats, tossing back the blanket on her comforter in the corner to check if the girl is sleeping there.

The blonde pops her head in the bathroom, frowning when she finds it empty as well. Her heart beats in her throat as she frantically scans the tiny apartment. Lapis’ bag is still on the floor, laptop on the counter where Peridot had moved it when she’d left for work.

“Where could she be!?” The girl asks the vacant room, hands balling in frustration. “The key is gone…”

Suddenly, a familiar baritone rings out from through the wall, harmonizing with a song she hadn’t known was playing, “I’d like to make myself believe…”

“...that planet earth turns slowly,” a second voice continues.

“It’s hard to say I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep,” a third person lilts. Peridot groans. Of _course_ Jasper would throw a party tonight. Playing ‘Fireflies,’ no less! With a huff she storms from her apartment and raps on her neighbours’ door, hiking her hands on her hips. The singing ceases mid-verse and she hears heavy footsteps thudding across the floor before Jasper throws the door open.

“Peri!” she crows drunkenly, clapping a hand on Peridot’s shoulder. “Hey Lazuli, it’s your girlfriend!”

She quirks an eyebrow. _Who’s Lazuli?_

“I have a girlfriend?” an incredulous voice replies from inside. “That’s news to me.”

Peridot perks up. “Is that Lapis?” she asks, puzzled.

“Hell yeah, Blue really know how to party!” Jasper commends, grinning as she downs the last of the beer in her hand.

“Blue? What the hell is going on here?” Peridot pushes past the tall woman to see Amethyst and Lapis slouching on the couch with Xbox controllers in their hands, surrounded by bags of junk food and empty Red Bull cans.

Acid green eyes practically pop out of the blonde’s head. “Lapis, what did you do to your hair?”

“I’m trying to become a mermaid,” she deadpans, earning a snicker from the purple-haired girl next to her.

“Homegirl, if that’s all it takes to be a mermaid I’d already have gills,” the Latina jokes, playfully elbowing Lapis.

Peridot pinches the bridge of her nose, exhaling heavily. “Lapis, what are you doing here?”

“Wrecking Amethyst in Call of Duty, what are you doing?” she replies casually as an onscreen grenade explodes loudly.

“No, I mean how did you get here? Do you even know these guys?”

“We met a few hours ago. They’re cool.”

“Are you drunk?” the blonde complains, eying Lapis suspiciously.

“Nah, I only had a couple beers. I _am_ high as shit, though.”

Peridot drags her hands down her face in exasperation. “I don’t know what I expected…” she mutters to herself before looking back to Lapis. “I’m going back to my place, just- be back whenever.”

Her roommate has already left when the teenager finally responds, “Radical.”

**~*~**

Lapis comes to suddenly, sucking in a strangled breath and coughing heavily into her hand. She sits up, tired eyes landing on the collapsed forms of Jasper and Amethyst sprawled on the couch. She cracks her back, sore from sleeping on the floor, and rises to her feet. Her head pulses vaguely and she feels like she’s still high as she pads to the kitchen, downing the partial bottle of lukewarm water on the counter.

She grabs her beat up sneakers from their untidy position by the television and quietly steps into the hall. She sighs, forehead thudding against the wall between apartment six and seven. She shakes her head in a futile attempt to diffuse the foggy dissonance in her skull before undoing the deadbolt and trudging into Peridot’s place.

She’s met with hardly a glance from the bespectacled girl in the corner. “Look who’s back. Alka Seltzer is on the counter, I’m assuming you’ll need it.”

Lapis stares dumbly at the packaged tablets on the faux marble behind the sink. She ignores them in favour of settling on the sleeping mat where her bag rests. Her glassy eyes gaze past the walls around her, unfocused and blurry. A few minutes pass before Peridot turns around in her chair.

“Hey, Lapis. Can we talk?”

It takes a moment for the words to register and the teenager nods lightly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing! I just thought we should, you know, get to know each other a little better…” the blonde stutters, rubbing her arm with cheeks tinted pink.

“Alright.”

The seconds that follow are tense and deathly silent.

“Erm, well, what- what did you do while I was at work? Of course there was the hair thing, but, what else?”

“Went out, walked through town. Looked around the thrift shop. Got Kool-Aid from the grocery store and dyed my hair. Came home, ran into Jasper. She thought I was breaking in because you didn’t leave a building key.”

Peridot chuckles sheepishly. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d leave the building. I left the apartment key in case you needed to do laundry downstairs or something.”

“Uh-huh.”

Peridot shuffles her hands awkwardly. “Heh. So, what are your plans?”

Lapis raises an eyebrow. “What plans?”

“Being here. Are you going to stay long? Get a job around here?”

The bluenette swallows. She’d been anticipating that question. “Um. Maybe.”

“Because if you plan on leaving, I get it, but if you want to stay around I’d be happy to have you. It’d be nice to have someone to split the rent with,” she jokes with a gentle smile.

Lapis reciprocates the gesture, stern lips curling upward. “Yeah.”

“I might have to get you a real bed, though.”

“I’m fine sleeping on the floor. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you for a bed when you don’t even have one yourself,” Lapis mutters, not meeting Peridot’s eyes.

“Well, a tatami’s better than nothing, right?” the blonde replies, hoping to ease the newfound tension in the room.

“A what?”

“The mat you’re sitting on. My friend Pearl gave it to me, she said it gave the place some class or something.”

“No amount of straw can make up for the lawn furniture in here,” Lapis deadpans. She grins despite herself when Peridot makes a dramatic offended noise.

“Hey, it’s what I could afford! It’s hard enough paying rent and utilities with two minimum wage jobs.”

“I believe you,” the girl sighs, trying to quell the anxiety surrounding the thought of trying to get a job. If Peridot found out… everything would come crashing down around her. She huffs suddenly, changing the subject. “You got any alcohol around here?”

Peridot tilts her head, bemused. “Didn’t you bring rum with you?”

“Yeah, but that shit’s potent as hell. I want to get buzzed, not plastered.”

The blonde rolls her eyes. “There’s Strawberry Schnapps on top of the fridge.”

Lapis snorts. “Schnapps? What, are you thirteen?”

“Shut up or I’m retracting the offer! I’ll leave you to your Austrian death potion, you watch me!”

“Fine, fine!” Lapis concedes, standing and striding to the refrigerator. She rummages past boxes of protein bars to reach the partial bottle of liquor. Withdrawing glasses from the cupboard, Lapis pours two tumblers of the red alcohol, crossing the room to hand one to Peridot.

She glances down at the drink. “Day drinking before noon, what would my mother say?”

Lapis shrugs as she lifts her tumbler towards the blonde. “Girls just wanna have fun,” she quips.

Peridot grins. “Girls just wanna have fun,” she concurs.

They clink their glasses together and drink in the mid-morning sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used the term 'bluenette;' it's official, I've hit rock bottom.


	5. It Has Begun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhhhhhhh i updated the tags...
> 
> if you see something you don't want to read about, hit that back button now. otherwise, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

_Into the dark below_  
_Evading shadows_  
_Blind in a rabbit's hole_  
_We fall beneath the earth_  
_And watch the shell come unraveled_  
_As the seed begins to rise_

_-It Has Begun, Starset_

* * *

 

Lapis idly pushes damp blue locks off her forehead as she climbs the stairs, face shining with sweat. _God, I hate summer,_ she thinks sourly as she unlocks the apartment, kicking the stuck door and dragging herself inside.

Peridot rolls over on her comforter, eyes squinted and hair messy. “Hey, Lazuli. How’s the job search?”

She grunts, pulling open the fridge and grabbing a Monster energy drink from the top shelf. Popping the tab, she takes a quick swig before responding. “Horrible.”

“That bad?” The blonde pushes herself into a sitting position, sliding her glasses on and running a hand through the wild bush on her head.

Lapis sighs, picking at a scratch on the back of her hand. “Nobody wants a loser like me with no job experience,” she grumbles, staring at the floor.

“You should find something in retail or food service,” Peridot suggests with a shrug. “You already have the thousand-yard stare so you’re halfway there.”

“Oh yeah, sounds great, let me wait hand-and-foot on a bunch of entitled asshole Baby Boomers for eight dollars an hour,” the blue-haired girl retorts sardonically, taking another large swallow of her Monster.

“Lapis, I hate to say it, but I don’t think you have much of a choice.”

She throws her head back and groans in surrender. “Could you _not_ be the voice of reason for five minutes?”

“And what would you prefer I do?”

“You’re supposed to say, ‘aww, Lapis, those guys don’t know what they’re missing! Any place would be lucky to have you!’”

“Aww, Lapis, those guys don’t know what they’re missing! Any place would be lucky to have you!” Peridot parrots back with a cheeky smirk.

“Shut up,” Lapis replies with a roll of her eyes, throwing an apple from the counter at the girl.

Peridot catches it with a slight fumble and takes a bite from the fruit. “Seriously, though,” she continues through her full mouth, “it’s a tough job market out there, especially for people like us without degrees.”

“I know that, it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it,” Lapis pouts, crossing her arms. “Speaking of jobs, shouldn’t you be asleep right now?”

Peridot blows out a heavy breath. “Yeah, but I can’t sleep. It’s hot and the air conditioner keeps making that horrible noise.”

“You should have some rum. A lightweight like you, it’d knock you right out.”

“Hey, I am not a lightweight!” she defends shrilly.

“Come on, you can hardly hold down Schnapps!”

Peridot throws the apple back at Lapis, sticky and half-eaten. The bluenette wipes her hand on her leggings and bites into the fruit herself.

“Well, I should probably try to get some sleep before work, then,” Peridot murmurs.

“Yeah.” Lapis looks everywhere but the girl’s green eyes, shuffling awkwardly. “I’ll let you get to it.”

The short girl smiles gently and takes off her glasses, rolling back over to face the wall. Lapis breathes a tired breath and leans back against the counter, nursing what’s left of her energy drink. The late afternoon sun shines brightly in the high windows, bathing the room in a soft orange hue, and Lapis closes her eyes for a moment.

After a few minutes, Lapis can hear soft snores from Peridot and she smiles, quietly tossing her empty can and apple core in the trash. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping woman, she slips from the apartment, locking the door behind herself. Glancing at her watch, she knocks on the adjacent door labeled with a seven. Jasper _should_ be home…

“Who is it!?” yells Amethyst from within. _Maybe not._

“It’s Lapis.”

“Door’s unlocked, come on in!”

Lapis steps into the living room, dark and hazy with drawn curtains and smoke hanging in the air. Amethyst waves from the couch where a half-eaten pizza rests on the coffee table. “Hey, Lappy! What’s up?”

The girl crosses the room and sits next to the Latina. “Nothing much, Peridot’s sleeping and I don’t want to disturb her.”

“Coolio. Want some pizza? It’s the taco kind from Fish Stew.”

Lapis grimaces at the sour cream drenched creation and shakes her head. “No thanks.”

“Your loss,” she replies with a shrug as she devours the piece in her hand. “So Peri tells me you’re trying to find a job?”

Lapis groans. “ _T_ _rying_ being the key word.”

“No luck, huh?”

“Not unless I can manage a college degree in the next few weeks, no.”

“You never went?” Amethyst inquires through a mouthful of pizza.

“Nope. It’s not that I didn’t want to, I just- I never really got a chance,” she mutters abashedly.

“I feel ya. My parents always wanted me to jump right in after high school but I just enrolled this year. Took me a while to save up the money for tuition, you know?”

Lapis raises an eyebrow. “You’re in college?”

“Yup, freshman year at the art academy downtown,” Amethyst states proudly, grinning.

Lapis smiles, happy for her friend, though it’s bittersweet knowing she’ll likely never get a chance to follow in such footsteps. “What are you majoring in?”

“Animation,” she replies almost shly.

“Really? I never would have taken you for the fine arts type!”

“Yeah, I got the same sort of reaction from my parents. I never did too well in school. Goofed off a lot, you know?” the shorter girl deflates as she speaks, eyes shining. “When I said I wanted to go to art school they all but laughed in my face."

Lapis swallows thickly, unsure how to respond. She hadn’t meant to upset her. “I- I’m sorry.”

“Nah, man, it’s fine. That’s in the past, I’m over it now,” the Latina mollifies somewhat unconvincingly, sniffing and swiping a quick hand across her eyes. “Who cares what they think, right?”

“Right,” Lapis agrees with what she hopes is a comforting smile, clapping a hand on the other girl’s shoulder.

She decides to have a piece of pizza after all, propping her feet on the coffee table and mildly turning her attention to the syndicated episode of _Wheel of Fortune_ playing. She makes idle conversation and solves onscreen puzzles with Amethyst for a while before the girl abruptly turns to her with an idea glowing in her coffee brown eyes.

“Hey, why don’t you come work with me?” she asks excitedly.

Lapis furrows her brows. “Where do you work?”

“This place downtown called The Temple, it’s like half bar, half nightclub. If you take the bus there it shouldn’t be more than a thirty minute trip. They’ve been looking for new help for months now, since I'm friends with the owner I can pretty much guarantee you get the job!”

The blue-haired girl narrows her eyes. “I dunno, half an hour to and from work? That’s a lot. What kind of hours would I have?”

“Well, we need a second shift bartender if you’re up for it. There’s also an opening in security, but it’s a pretty physical job, breaking up fights and stuff.”

Lapis looks away, chewing on her lip. “Bartending, huh? Not the worst job, I guess.”

“So are you in?” Amethyst prods enthusiastically.

She blows out a resigned breath and cracks a muted smile. “What the hell? I’m in.”

“Yeah, baby!” the Latina celebrates, slamming a high-five against Lapis’ hand. “I’m gonna be working with Lap-Lap!”

Lapis chuckles and turns back to the TV, feeling like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

“Don’t call me Lap-Lap.”

**~*~**

“Peridot, you really don’t have to do this,” Lapis points out for the umpteenth time, glancing at the kitchen wall clock.

“I insist!” the blonde chirps back, smiling. “It’s your first day at your new job, this is a milestone!”

Lapis looks away, cheeks flushing pink at being doted on. She self-consciously crosses her arm across her midsection to rub her opposite forearm and clears her throat.

“We’d better go, then. It’s almost two-thirty.”

“Don’t worry, there’s no way I’m letting you show up late your first day on the job,” Peridot replies confidently as she yanks the door shut into its collapsed jamb. Lapis rolls her eyes and follows the blonde down the stairs and out of the apartment complex. She makes sure she has both the apartment and building keys with her before getting in the car with Peridot, kicking her feet up above the glove box.

She can feel those bright green eyes glaring daggers at her worn sneakers propped on the dashboard, but she defiantly refuses to move them. Peridot starts the car with a sigh and shifts gears, pulling out onto the road and beginning their journey. After a few minutes, Lapis pulls her smartphone from her pocket, playing a mindless match-3 puzzle game to pass the time. Upon reaching a difficult level she can’t seem to beat, however, the entertainment quickly dies and she shoves the device back in her jeans.

Her eyes flicker over to Peridot who’s silently gazing at the road and her stare rakes across her small frame. Having been asleep less than thirty minutes ago, the woman is wearing a chartreuse crop top and green plaid pyjama bottoms and Lapis can’t help the smirk that creeps onto her face. She looks good in the sleepwear, she looks… _cute._

Lapis blinks, startled by her own thoughts. _No, no, no,_ she mentally berates herself. _There’s no room in this fucked-up arrangement for some misbegotten crush!_ She shakes her head to ground herself and decides to strike up a conversation to occupy herself.

“So, you’ve been to The Temple before, then?” she asks curiously, smiling in what she hopes is an innocent manner.

Peridot seems almost surprised to have been spoken to. “Uh, yeah. Amethyst drags me along every now and then. It’s not really my scene, though, all the alcohol and dancing and whatnot.”

“ _You_ , not much of a dancer? Who would have thought?” she replies sarcastically with a teasing grin.

“Hey, I can dance, I just choose not to!”

“ _Sure,_ ” she retorts, flashing Peridot a teasing look.

“I will stop this car to demonstrate my dancing skills, don’t test me!”

“Alright, alright, I believe you!” she concedes, raising her hands in surrender. She leans her head against the cool window glass and enjoys the rest of the ride with her eyes closed.

After some time, the car slows to a stop and Lapis lifts her head, eyes widening as her gaze lands on the scenery outside. The busy street is five lanes wide, crammed with short buildings and skyscrapers alike, all pressed into the massive city with hardly any space between them. They are pulled up in front of a two-story establishment with tinted windows, seemingly ordinary save a large sign reading ‘The Temple’ in multicoloured neon.

“Holy shit…” Lapis takes a moment to stare in awe; the downtown area is hardly recognizable as the same city that houses Peridot’s rundown neighbourhood.

“This is your stop, Lazuli,” Peridot announces, a look of worry creasing her face. “Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up after your shift? I’ll take the day off if I have to.”

“Trust me, Peridot. I have street smarts and GPS on my phone,” Lapis replies reassuringly. “Hell, even if I wanted you to come, it wouldn’t be a very good idea to make a habit of you ditching work.”

“But-"

“I’m a big girl. I’ll be fine, I promise.” Lapis then opens the Pontiac’s passenger side door and steps out onto the sidewalk.

“Be safe, idiot!” Peridot calls from her seat, waving.

“I will, nerd!” With that, she shuts the door of the coupe and strides through the entrance of The Temple for her first day as a bartender.

**~*~**

By the time the clock strikes eleven, all Lapis wants to do is smoke.

Her forehead is pressed against the questionably clean bar she’s been standing behind for nearly eight hours. Her head is pounding with a building migraine and the club’s pulsing music isn’t helping. She groans loudly, huffing out a long breath against the polished wood.

“Easy there, Lap-Lap, your shift’s almost over,” a familiar voice soothes from a nearby barstool.

Lapis doesn’t lift her head to flip the girl off. “Shut the fuck up, Amethyst,” she retorts into the into the bar beneath her face.

“ _Language_!” a prim voice suddenly scolds from nearby.

The bluenette instantly jerks to attention, standing straight. “Sorry, Pearl,” she mutters, looking sheepish as her supervisor walks by with a reproachful glare.

Pearl is the first one of Amethyst’s work friends Lapis had met and it hadn’t taken long to get to know her. She’s a straightforward woman; high-strung and perfectionist. At first glance she looks like a delicate china doll with her alabaster skin, peach pink hair, pristine pastel clothing, and slim, birdlike frame, but she is far from demure. She’s spirited and bossy with a haughty air about her that commands attention and compliance.

Lapis doesn’t like her very much.

She pulls out her phone to check the time, willfully ignoring Amethyst’s quiet snickering. _10:59._ Lapis drums her fingers on the shelf beneath the bar in boredom until the numbers roll over and she unties her apron instantly, tossing it over a stool.

“That’s my cue to bounce,” she declares, clocking out on the register computer before stepping out from behind the bar.

“First day on the job, whaddaya think?” Amethyst asks, elbowing Lapis lightly.

“Well, if this is what the Wednesday clientele looks like I’d hate to see it on the weekend,” she grunts, disdainfully eying the still-raging crowd on the dancefloor. “But hey, anything for a paycheck, right?”

The Latina laughs raucously. “Ain’t that the truth?”

“Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, Ame. I’d better get home before the murderers start roaming the streets, eh?”

“Be careful out there, Lap-Lap!”

The girl extends a middle finger to Amethyst once more, turning around and pushing her way out of the building. The wind is heavy and the crowded street is unseasonably cool but Lapis enjoys the cold. Withdrawing her mobile from her jeans, she opens her GPS app and inputs Peridot’s address. A blue line on the screen maps out her path home and she starts on her walk, keeping her pace brisk.

As she trudges through the busy city, the temperature drops further and a chill runs through Lapis’ blood. She shivers profusely, wishing she’d worn something warmer than her torn skinny jeans and Water Witch tank top. The farther she voyages homeward, the more desolate her surroundings become. Soon she finds she’s the only one on the narrow sidewalk, no longer immersed in the hustle and bustle of the city’s nightlife.

None of the buildings around her look at all recognizable; rather than businesses this district of town appears to be composed of cheap apartments and old warehouses. Crumbling structures overtaken by urban decay loom over her and she feels very alone; just one single person in the expansive maze of a metropolis. Hands shaking, she digs in her pocket for her cigarettes and lighter, lighting up and taking a long drag. Smoke spirals into the air from the smoldering cherry, blowing away in the wind.

 _You’re okay, just keep walking,_ Lapis tells herself, repeating the meaningless words in a futile effort to keep herself calm. _You’re going to be okay, you’ll be home soon with Peridot and everything’s going to be-_

Her feet stop as well as her heart when she feels icy cold steel press into the back of her neck, sharply angled upward. A metallic click reverberates from behind her, echoing against the surrounding buildings; the cocking of a handgun. She swallows, her throat dry.

A gravelly voice speaks up from behind her, low and threatening. “You’re going to do exactly as I say, doll, or I’m going to splatter your brains on the pavement. Got it?”


	6. Victorious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 kudos y'all, ty guys for your support :)
> 
>  **Warning:** this chapter contains graphic violence and attempted rape.

_I'm like a scarf trick, it's all up the sleeve_  
_I taste like magic, waves that swallow quick and deep_  
_Throw the bait, catch the shark, bleed the water red_  
_Fifty words for murder and I'm every one of them_

_-Victorious, Panic! at the Disco_

* * *

Lapis’ heart thunders in her chest like a kick drum. Her panicked brain is at a loss, knowing she has no defense against a loaded firearm. She nods weakly and raises her hands, struggling to keep her erratic breathing steady.

A hand reaches from behind her, tightly gripping the back of her tank top. “Walk with me, princess,” the voice commands, digging the muzzle of the gun into Lapis’ neck.

She complies and starts walking slowly, a lump forming in her throat. As subtle as she can, she turns her head infinitesimally to the side, trying to get a glimpse of her captor. All she sees, however, is bright white as she’s pistol-whipped in the back of the head by the armed stranger.

“Eyes forward or I shoot ‘em out, you get me?” they growl fiercely.

Lapis nods furiously, head swimming from the impact. She squints her eyes shut as she walks, begging every deity she knows to help her. As she nears a street corner, the gangster pursuing her jerks the fabric of her shirt to the right. She understands the order and changes course, trudging down a dark alleyway between buildings. The path is eerily quiet; heavy, boot-clad footsteps the only sound piercing the silence.

Lapis navegates winding backstreets at her kidnapper’s direction, every muscle in her body rigid with terror and adrenaline. The alleys gradually lead away from the developed part of the city to a decaying section of town with crumbling asphalt and bristly weeds growing through concrete. After some time, a low murmur of noise comes into earshot. It sounds like a party, multiple voices talking and laughing uproariously, and it chills the girl to the bone. Where on earth is she being taken?

A wide, ramshackle warehouse soon comes into view, surrounded by a high, jagged chain link fence. A cold dread knots itself in the pit of Lapis’ stomach and she has to blink back the hot tears prickling at her eyes. A muscular arm then reaches around her torso to undo the chain on the barricade, pushing the gate open and shoving Lapis through it.

A gloved hand suddenly seizes the teenager’s neck, holding her steady as her captor slinks to the door of the warehouse, banging on the metal with the butt of their pistol. Lapis sputters and chokes, flailing desperately, but the grip tightens and instinct forces to settle down before she’s asphyxiated. The commotion within the building hushes almost instantly, heavy footfalls approaching the other side of the door.

“What is it?” an intimidating voice asks from inside.

“Five rubies,” Lapis’ kidnapper responds cryptically and the girl deduces it must be some sort of code. A deadbolt loudly clunks and the door swings open, gunman jabbing the teen with their weapon to usher her in.

The warehouse is unnaturally bright, rows of fluorescent lights shining from the ceiling like spotlights. Lapis’ eyes wildly rake the room but she doesn’t have a chance to examine her surroundings before her world shifts as she’s thrown to the floor.

“Look what I caught, Doc,” her captor boasts.

“Good one, Army!” a chilling baritone rumbles as footsteps advance toward Lapis. Expensive leather boots come into the girl’s vision and the steel barrel of an automatic rifle hooks under Lapis’ chin, lifting her head.

Cobalt eyes land on the grinning face of a dark-skinned woman with a square afro and yellow-tinted shades. She’s wearing black suspenders under a bespoke designer suit coloured crimson red. “You’re a fine piece of ass, aren’t you?” she taunts, tongue hungrily swiping across bright white teeth.

Laps swallows, closing her eyes and stifling a whimper. Without warning one of those heavy boots is striking her ribs, launching her backwards. She collides painfully with the brick wall behind her before landing in a crumpled heap on the cement. A hand fists itself in her hair, tearing a cry from her throat as she’s mercilessly yanked her to her knees by her electric blue locks.

The sunglass-clad woman draws her face close to Lapis’, eyebrows sharp. “You’re going to keep your eyes on me, understand? I want to see those baby blues every second that I fuck you.”

Lapis’ eyes widen to the size of saucers, horror roiling through her. In a jolt of desperate vigour she balls her fists and decks the woman square in the nose, sending her staggering back with a pained roar. Leaping to her feet, she makes a mad dash for the door, running faster than she’s ever run.

Before she’s taken three steps, however, a gunshot rings out and scorching fire blazes through the girl’s shin. Her legs give out beneath her with an agonized scream and she tumbles to the floor. She instinctively curls into herself and clutches her injured calf, hot blood running across her fingers. Her ears are ringing; four sets of hands are tugging and grabbing to restrain her. Words and yells are flying back and forth as Doc barks orders in a furious voice clouded with pain. The world seems to stop turning as everything converges at once.

Once the commotion settles, Army and a woman in a sheer, too-tight top that leaves her midsection and navel exposed each have hold of Lapis’ arms, holding her a few inches off the ground.

“Where do you want her, Doc?” the latter asks serenely with a sickly-sweet tone like the saccharine saliva that comes before vomiting.

The gang boss glares at the girl with a cruel, bitter hatred as she wipes the blood from her nose. “Right here. Take off her jeans.”

Lapis almost blacks out from pain as the brutish women pull and grope her legs to push her jeans to her ankles, completely disregarding her open wound. She’s quickly left bare from the waist down save a pair of blue boyshorts. The sick lust in Doc’s dark stare makes Lapis want to puke and the urge only gets stronger as she approaches, slow and shaky like an injured coyote.

She wants to fight back more than anything, but her adrenaline rush has worn out and the energy has left her body. Blood is still freely dripping from her gunshot wound, pain pulsing through her veins. Her limbs are heavy and she can hardly struggle when Doc’s calloused hands slide beneath her tank top, leaving no skin unexplored.

 _This can’t be happening,_ she thinks hysterically, begging the world to let her wake up from whatever nightmare world she’s trapped within. Greedy fingers dive beneath her underwear and tears well in her eyes.

“No, no, please!” she begs, thrashing wildly. “I’ll do anything you want.”

Doc’s harsh, cold movements suddenly rake down over her clitoris and she chokes back a sob. The hands roam father, searching to penetrate her, and she hears a dark, bitter laugh shudder from the woman’s chest.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy hearing you _scream_ …”

Suddenly, light flashes in the high front windows, shining across the back warehouse wall. The dull hum of an engine thrums from nearby, rising louder into a crescendo and prompting Doc to cease her ministrations.

Then the front of the building explodes.

Glass shatters and bricks fly as a jet black armoured vehicle crashes into the warehouse, headlights blinding white like spotlights. Doors open, four figures jumping from the insurgent, and suddenly the building is alight with booming gunfire, bullets whizzing in every direction.

Lapis is instantly dropped to the floor like yesterday’s garbage as the gangsters frantically avoid gunshots. Doc quickly brandishes a semi-automatic rifle, shooting back at the intruders as Army and Navy fire their own handguns. A blood curdling screech pierces the room as one of Doc’s other bodyguards gets hit with a sawed-off shotgun blast, leg irreparably mangled by the bullet spray.

Amidst the chaos, Lapis feels a pair of strong arms lift her from the ground. Her heavy eyes peer up to see the unfamiliar face of a tan-skinned woman with teal-dyed hair, round sunglasses, and a stoic scowl. She doesn’t have much time to be surprised before she’s being heaved over the woman’s broad shoulder and carried away from the clamour.

The stranger hurriedly deposits Lapis in the backseat of the insurgent, crawling across the console and settling into the driver’s seat. “Fall back!” she calls to the others as she revs the engine. “We have the girl.”

The gunfire lightens as three women retreat into the vehicle, one on each side of Lapis and another in the passenger seat. They slam the doors shut and the teal-haired woman puts the insurgent in reverse, pulling out of the warehouse and speeding away like a bat out of hell.

“Opal, tend to the wound on her leg. She’ll bleed out if it isn’t dealt with,” the driver barks as she flies past a stop sign.

A pale woman with striking blue eyes and hair so blonde it’s almost white leans over from the right of Lapis, sliding the girl’s bunched-up jeans from her ankles and gently lifting her injured leg onto her lap. The woman in the front seat with pointed shades and purple highlights in her hair sheds her leather jacket and hands it to Opal. The blonde carefully wraps the girl’s wound with the cloth, applying pressure to the gash. Lapis hisses from the pain and she shushes her softly.

“I’m sorry, I have to stop the bleeding,” she hums apologetically.

Lapis’ head is swimming; she has no idea who these people are or why they’re helping her. The laceration in her leg is searing and she want to scream, wants to rake her nails down her face and cry, but instead she bites down on her tongue, whimpering pitifully.

The woman on her left readjusts herself so Lapis’ head is propped on her thigh. “Hush, dear. We’ll take care of you,” she soothes in a gaudy Brooklyn accent.

“Who- who _are_ you people?” She chokes out, breathing heavily and willing time to pass faster.

“I’m Sardonyx, that’s Opal, and in the front seat we have Sugilite and the lovely Alexandrite,” she announces, motioning to each woman one by one.

“No,” Lapis growls, frustrated and fuzzy-headed. “What- why did you do this? Why are you, why are you helping me?”

“Our boss saw what was happening with that nasty little Ruby threatening you and gave us an order to help out.”

“Wha- what do you mean _ruby_?”

“The people that took you hostage are a part of a vile little group who call themselves The Rubies. They’re known for kidnapping girls like you who wander out into their section of the city alone.”

Lapis doesn’t know how to respond. She stares at the dark buildings passing by out the window for a while before Opal speaks up.

“I finally got the bleeding to stop. You’re lucky the bullet only grazed you,” she states, reaching under the front seat to retrieve a first aid kit. She withdraws a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a cotton ball, meeting Lapis’ gaze with pity. “This is going to sting.”

“Hey, it’s can’t possibly hurt worse than being shot, right?” she deadpans, earning a musical chuckle from the woman. She bites her tongue, hissing in pain as Opal attentively disinfects her wound with the antiseptic. Once clean, the blonde diligently wraps her leg with gauze and helps Lapis back into her torn jeans.

The vehicle descends into silence and some time passes. Alexandrite drives quietly while Sugilite picks at her fingernails with a switchblade. Lapis sighs and leans her head back on Sardonyx’s lap, staring at the ceiling of the car. _What the hell have I gotten myself into?_

A few minutes later, the insurgent stops outside a mostly empty twenty-four hour diner on the outskirts of the downtown area. Lapis sits up, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

“What are we doing here?”

“This your stop, kid,” Sugilite announces. “The boss wanted to see you here.”

“Wait, what!?” she retorts in shock. “I don’t know who that is! You’re leaving me with a complete stranger?”

“To be fair, you’re in a car _full of_ complete strangers,” Alexandrite points out from the driver’s seat.

Lapis groans, dragging her hands down her face. “Fine. What’s this boss person look like?”

Opal chuckles. “Oh, you’ll know her when you see her.”

“Thanks, that helps,” she replies, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lapis carefully crawls over Sardonyx to get to the door, but the blonde stops her before she can get out.

“Whoa now, you can’t just walk around with a gunshot wound in your leg!” she reaches into the back of the insurgent, rummaging for a moment before withdrawing a pair of crutches. “Here.”

With a resigned grunt, Lapis takes the crutches and shakily steps out of the vehicle, holding her right foot off the ground. “Well, uh, thanks, I guess. For everything.”

“Don’t thank us, thank the boss. She’s the one that organized this,” Sugilite growls matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, okay. Um. Bye?” Lapis mutters awkwardly, unsure what the social protocol is for being saved from rape by a bunch of strangers.

“Stay safe!” Opal calls and then the vehicle is driving away into the cold night. The girl exhales heavily and hops into the restaurant on her crutches.

The diner has a fifties style, all checkerboard floors and red plastic booths. Vinyl records line the walls and an ancient jukebox is pushed in the corner by a vending machine. The place looks deserted save a tired-looking employee drying dishes behind the counter. Lapis glances around in confusion when someone suddenly clears their throat from behind her.

She whirls around to see a well-built, dark-skinned woman with wild white hair and lighter patches of skin spread across her face, biceps, and torso. She’s wearing dark cargo pants and a tight black and green crop top that’s practically a sports bra. She looks calm and cool with a dangerous aura about her that scares and intrigues Lapis. She apprehensively limps to the far booth, sitting down and laying her crutches next to her.

“So, your friends said you wanted to see me,” she begins uncomfortably.

The woman laughs. Her voice is rough. “They aren’t my friends; those are my associates.”

“Okay, well, thanks for sending them,” Lapis goes on, staring at the grimy floor. “Things would have been really bad if they hadn’t come when they did.”

“Hey, us gals have to stick together, right?” she replies with a wide, toothy grin. She abruptly slides a menu across the table to Lapis. “You should eat. You look like you’ve had a rough night.”

Her eyes wander to her new crutches. “Yeah, maybe.”

The white-haired woman takes a long drink from the coffee sitting in front of her before speaking again. “So what’s your name, Blue?”

“Lapis Lazuli.”

“A pretty name for a pretty girl,” she says with a smile.

Lapis’ finger curl around the corner of her laminated menu but she says nothing.

“So, I imagine you must have some questions?”

She shoots the woman a steely glare. “Who the hell are you?”

“Name’s Malachite. I’m... something of a businesswoman.”

Lapis narrows her eyes in skepticism. “Well, _Malachite_ , if you saw what was happening on the street why didn’t help me then instead of sending out a fucking rescue team?”

She laughs again, loud and boisterous. “Oh, honey, I don’t do shit like that. When you’re successful, you have other people to do the dirty work for you.”

“Dirty work? Why the hell did you help me if I’m just dirty work to be pawned off on someone else?”

“Doll, you’re missing the point. I’ve never seen your face around here before and, frankly, I’d like to keep seeing it. I helped you because I wanted to.”

“Well, you’ve got a pretty fucked up way of helping people,” she growls, throwing opening her menu and browsing the meals with dark eyes.

“Hey, I’m pretty fucked up. That’s just what life does to you, especially ‘round these parts.”

The employee from behind the counter then approaches the table, placing a coffee in front of Lapis before taking out a notepad. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll have the All-American Slam,” Malachite replies without even looking at her own menu.

Lapis eyes her. “Isn’t it a little late for breakfast?”

“Breakfast is the only thing here that isn’t total shit,” she chuckles.

The girl glances up at the server to gauge their reaction. They nod once with a shrug. Lapis sighs. “I’ll have the same.”

They collect the menus and vanish back into the kitchen. Lapis stares hard at Malachite for a moment.

“Why am I here?”

“What?”

“Why did you want to see me here? You saved me, big deal, what could you possibly need to sit here and have dinner with me for? Is this your idea of a date?”

Malachite throws her head back, laughing deeply. “You’re a feisty one, eh? I don’t have any ulterior motives, if that’s what you’re asking. Although I wouldn’t be averse to taking you home with me if you’re offering,” she replies, baring her pointed teeth in a suggestive grin.

Lapis looks away, cheeks heating up. The woman chuckles to herself as she withdraws a pack of Pall Malls from her pocket, lighting up and taking a long drag. Lapis squints at her.

“You know you’re not allowed to smoke in here, right?”

Malachite reaches down, pulling a handgun from her waistband and slamming it down on the table. “Hey,” she calls to their server standing at the counter. “You care if I smoke in here?”

They glance down at the pistol and hardly even blink. They shrug.

Lapis rolls her eyes but extends a hand to Malachite. “Give me one, then.”

The woman smirks, sliding the Pall Malls and lighter across the table. “Aren’t you a little young to be smoking?”

“Really? _You’re_ going to criticize _me_ on breaking the law? Anyway I’m here for a good time, not a long time,” she deadpans as she lights her own cigarette.

“You have a point. Hey, we’re both killing ourselves slowly, right?”

“Damn right,” Lapis concurs, idly blowing smoke out of her nose.

Their cigarettes are almost burned up by the time the server returns with their meals, placing plates in front of both of them. “Enjoy.”

Lapis puts her smoldering cigarette butt out in Malachite’s coffee, who laughs in good-humour. “I like you, Lapis Lazuli.”

“And I like getting free food from you, Malachite.”

They eat in relative silence but the quiet is comfortable. After they’ve finished their food, Malachite orders a side of cottage cheese and excuses herself to go to the vending machine, returning with a snack size bag of Cheetos. Back at the table, she pours them into her cottage cheese and Lapis quirks an eyebrow at her.

“Cheetos and cottage cheese?” she questions with a skeptical look.

“It’s delicious,” she assures with a grin. “My sister always ate them like this as a kid. I thought it was gross but she converted me.”

Lapis fake-gasps dramatically. “What’s this? Human emotions? From you?” she taunts.

“Shut the fuck up,” she shoots back but there’s no anger behind her words. She slides the small bowl to Lapis. “Try it.”

“No fucking way, you can keep that heart attack to yourself.”

“I’m not going to give up ‘till you try it.”

Lapis sighs. “Fine.” She takes a spoonful of the concoction and chews with apprehension but her eyebrows rise towards her hairline after a moment.

“What the fuck,” she mumbles. “Why is this good?”

The other woman guffaws, taking the cottage cheese back. “I told you!"

The employee with the sunken eyes then comes by the table to drop off the bill. Malachite takes her wallet from her pants and withdraws a shiny black credit card, laying it on top of the receipt and handing it back to the server. They walk back to the kitchen and return shortly after.

“Have good night,” they say as they place the card back on the table.

Malachite puts away her credit card and digs out a folded fifty dollar bill, leaving it on the table as a tip. Lapis’ eyes widen but she doesn’t say anything.

A thought suddenly strikes Lapis and she frantically pats her pockets. “Son of a bitch!”

“What?”

“I dropped my phone back when that fucker ambushed me! Without GPS I don’t know how to get home from here.”

“Oh, honey, you don’t need to worry about that,” Malachite reassures, standing and holding a hand out for Lapis. Pulling the girl upright, she nods out the diner window to a sleek black limousine parked outside.

“How the fuck…?”

“Don’t worry about it, doll. Come on.” The two women leave the restaurant promptly and slide into the back seat of the car. Malachite presses a button to roll down the glass separating the driver’s seat from the back.

“What’s your address, Blue?”

“1626 Joseph Street,” Lapis replies with a yawn.

“You heard her, 1626 Joseph Street,” Malachite parrots to the driver, rolling the glass back up. The car kicks into gear and Lapis throws her head back against her seat as they begin on their way back home.

“My roommate is going to freak out,” she mutters, glancing down at her crutches.

Malachite grins. “What, has she never seen an incapacitating leg wound before?”

“I don’t think so, no,” she deadpans with a smirk. The smile falls from her face as she continues. “What the fuck am I going to tell her?”

“Just calmly explain that you suffered a gunshot wound while rescuing an orphan from being mugged. You’d be a hero!”

“Shut up, Malachite.”

The rest of the ride goes by in easy silence. Lapis finds herself dozing off after a while, almost lulled to sleep by the soft hum of the engine. She’s eventually startled awake by Malachite shaking her shoulder about half an hour later.

“We’re here, Blue. This place is a fuckin’ dump.”

“Yeah, it is. But hey, rent’s manageable.” A frown twitches on Malachite’s lips but she doesn’t say anything as she follows Lapis out of the car and up the front rickety steps. To the girl’s relief, her keys are still in her jean pocket and she unlocks the building door, limping into the lobby before turning back to the other woman.

“So, thanks again for sending your associates. And for dinner,” she quips, smiling tiredly.

“Anytime, doll. Before you go,” she begins, digging in her cargo pants to withdraw another handgun and extend it towards Lapis, grip first, “here.”

Lapis stares down at the firearm. “What’s this for?”

“Protection. Like I said, I’d like to keep seeing your face around here,” Malachite explains with a wolfish grin. Lapis takes the weapon, tucking it in her waistband.

“Whatever, asshole. I’ll, uh, see you around, I guess?”

“You can bet on it, sweetheart. Stay safe.”

“We’ll see about that!” Lapis calls after the woman as she walks back out of the lobby. She waits until she hears the sound of the limousine’s engine fade away to ascend the stairs, taking her time with her clunky crutches. She leans heavily on the wall as she unlocks the door to apartment six, using her shoulder to shove it open.

She stumbles into the tiny studio at long last, exhaustion weighing on every bone in her body. She throws her keys on the counter and stashes her pistol in the cabinet under the sink. Yawning deeply, she glares at the tatami mat on the floor with distaste.

“Aw, what the hell,” she says with a shrug as she tentatively lies down on Peridot’s comforter, using a pillow to elevate her wounded leg. Covering herself with a thin sheet, Lapis settles in and crashes into a much-needed insensate slumber.


	7. Cry Like a Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey,,, so writer's block is a bitch hhhhh
> 
> i don't know what i'm doing anymore
> 
>  **Warning:** this chapter contains graphic violence

_But as my body crumbled_  
_You walked as I just stumbled_  
_And we spoke only of things made in my head_  
_You never once controlled me_  
_While all the others told me_  
_That if I kept on going I'd be dead_

_-Cry Like a Ghost, Passion Pit_

* * *

“Get on the counter.”

“What? Why?”

Peridot emerges from the bathroom with a plastic first aid kit. “I’m dealing with your leg.”

“But I told you, that Opal chick already-”

“I need to stitch you up and give you fresh bandages! Now get on the counter!”

Lapis’ eyebrows raise but she complies, using her uninjured leg to hike herself onto the fake marble. As Peridot roots through her medical supplies, Lapis tugs her pant leg up past her bandages and grimaces as she feels dried blood scrape against her knee.

She slides down from the counter, undoing her jeans and carefully kicking them off around her wound. She shuffles back onto the countertop and Peridot blinks profusely when she sees her.

“Where are your, uh- your pants?” she stammers out, cheeks reddening.

“I took them off, they’re bloody and have a bullet hole in them.”

“Ah, great. Cool.” Peridot swallows deeply and kneels on the floor in front of Lapis, gently unwrapping the gauze around the girl’s calf. She frowns deeply at the sight of the gash, brows knitting together with a stormy look in her eyes. She wets a cotton ball with antiseptic and swipes it across the laceration, earning a pained hiss from Lapis.

“Sorry,” she whispers, cleansing the area as softly as she can. After a moment, she reaches into the kit and withdraws a curved surgical needle. Lapis grimaces, leaning away.

“Does I really need stitches?”

“Yes! It’s a gunshot wound, Lapis!”

“Do you have numbing cream or anything?” Lapis groans, apprehensive fear beating in her chest.

“No, you’ll just have to think about something else. Here,” she adds, handing a small square of cloth, “bite onto this.”

The teen sighs and folds the fabric, sliding it in her mouth. Peridot diligently begins to stitch the wound and Lapis whines into the cloth, knuckles white gripping the counter.

“Be still! I can’t do this if you’re moving,” the blonde admonishes, using a hand to cease Lapis’ pained squirming.

The girl groans, biting down hard on the fabric square. The needle stings like hot ashes on her tender flesh and she does her very best to ignore the pain. It doesn’t work very well. She thinks of baseball and Pearl’s incessant nagging and Malachite’s tiger-growl teeth and how cute Peridot looks with that earnest, concerned look on her face as she works.

Lapis gets caught up staring at Peridot. Her hair is disheveled from a long work shift, dark circles ghosting beneath her emerald eyes, but it doesn’t take away from her attractiveness. She has a vaguely Middle Eastern look to her face with high cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and adorable pouty lips-

_Shit._

By the time she forces herself to look away, Peridot is finished, sutures set in her leg. She carefully disinfects her needle and tucks it back in the first aid kit, standing up. She suddenly extends a hand to Lapis, holding out a small blue lollipop.

“Here’s a sucker for being so good for the doctor,” she quips with a teasing smirk.

Lapis decides to play along, taking the candy and unwrapping it before taking a slow, sensual lick. “It’s delicious, Doctor Olivine,” she breathes huskily.

Peridot’s face turns bright red but to Lapis’ surprise she boldly reaches for the lollipop, plunging it in her own mouth and swirling her tongue around it seductively. She takes the candy back out of her mouth with a thin strand of saliva connecting it to her lips.

“You’re right,” she whispers and for a moment they just stare at each other intensely, eyes dark and half-lidded.

They both come to their senses simultaneously, realizing what they’re doing. Peridot clears her throat, shoving the sucker back into Lapis’ hands and taking a step away.

“I, uh, I’m going to go shower. Be easy on your leg.”

With that she vanishes into the bathroom, leaving Lapis alone in the living room with her heart racing in her chest. She glances down at the candy Peridot’s tongue had been on only moments ago.

She puts it back in her mouth.

**~*~**

Peridot is playing a game at her desk, clicking her mouse vehemently and grunting out unintelligible noises every so often, when somebody pounds on the apartment door.

“Can you get that?” the blonde asks, eyes still glued to her computer screen.

“Sure,” Lapis mutters sarcastically as she stands with much effort, limping across the room on her crutches, “make the handicapped one get the door. I’m sure you’re doing something very pressing.”

“I told you before, this gamemode is only available for a limited time!”

Lapis rolls her eyes with a snort, throwing the front door open. She quirks an eyebrow, however, as her gaze falls upon empty space. No one is there, only a small brown package with a return address scribbled on the corner resting on the hall floor. She bends down and grabs the box, eying it dubiously.

“What is it?” Peridot asks as Lapis shuts the door, turning the suspicious box over.

“A package. But it doesn’t have a street address.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t have a street address?” she asks, turning towards the other girl.

“It has a return address, but our location is nowhere on here.”

Peridot stands up, eyes sharp and hesitant. “Do you think it’s something dangerous?”

Lapis shrugs, stepping to the kitchen to retrieve a pair of scissors. She slits the packing tape on the top of the box and carefully pulls the flaps open with Peridot hovering beside her. Something is wrapped in brown paper inside and the roommates exchange a confused glance. She slowly tears the wrapping off the object, squinting in apprehension.

She blinks.

It’s a phone.

A rose gold iPhone 7, still brand new in-box, rests inside the package. Lapis furrows her brows.

“What the hell?” Peridot pipes up, taking the small box from Lapis. “Who would send us a new phone? And why?”

Lapis stares at the unexpected gift. “I _need_ a new phone. I dropped mine during the incident last week.”

“You never told me that,” Peridot replies quietly.

“Yeah, there’s only one person I _did_ tell…” Lapis takes the phone box back, opening it up and removing the spotless new device from its cradle. She flips it over to see an engraving in the metal of the outer shell, squinting to read the small print.

> _To Lapis, with love, -Malachite_

The girl can’t help the smirk that finds its way onto her face. “That rat bastard,” she chides flippantly.

“What?” She shows the message to Peridot, who only frowns in response.

“I mentioned that I lost my phone when we were at the diner, I didn’t think she’d remember.”

“Lapis, I don’t like this,” Peridot states solemnly.

“Why not? Free stuff is good stuff,” Lapis replies simply.

“This Malachite person. She’s bad news, I can feel it. People don’t just spend hundreds of dollars on someone they hardly know unless they want something from them.”

“Malachite’s cool, Peridot. If it weren’t for her, I’d probably be dead in an alley somewhere, or worse.”

“I’m glad she helped you, Lapis, but the whole thing feels sketchy! She doesn’t know you from Adam and yet she’s willing to send out a bunch of her “associates” to save your life and then turn around and buy you a new phone? Something’s not right,” Peridot denounces, face scrunched in an uneasy scowl.

Lapis glares back at the blonde with dark eyes. “Who are you to judge Malachite? You don't even know her.”

“Lapis, neither do you!” she retorts desperately. “You had dinner with her _one time_ at the Denny’s downtown. You know her about as well as I know Amethyst's friend Garnet!”

Lapis tilts her head. “Who’s Garnet?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything about her, just like _you_ don’t know anything about _Malachite_!”

“I _do_ know her, Peridot! You weren’t there.”

“Oh really?” the blonde challenges, perching her hands on her hips. “If you know so much about her, what does she do for a living?”

“She’s… a businesswoman.”

“Oh, come _on_ , you and I both know that’s a shitty cover-up! She sent out a team of women with semi-automatic weapons in an _insurgent_! She drove you home in a limousine! She delivered a six hundred dollar phone to our front door like nothing! She’s a drug lord, Lapis!”

“So what, Peridot? So fucking what if she is? What does it matter? You can’t just write her off as a horrible person because of that. She also saved me from being raped or killed or sold into sex slavery! Doesn’t _that_ mean anything to you?” Lapis spits back, taking a confrontational step into Peridot’s personal space.

“Of _course_ it means something to me! I care about you, Lapis, which is why I’m trying to protect you from her!”

“Protect me from her? I don’t think you understand that she saved my fucking _life_ , Peridot! If she wanted to hurt me, she wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of rescuing me from the Rubies!”

“I’m not _saying_ she wants to hurt you, but she’s not as innocent as you’re making her out to be. You can’t possibly believe this random woman who saved your life and is now giving you gifts wants nothing from you in return!”

Lapis throws her hands up in exasperation. “What’s wrong with saving someone’s life and giving them gifts!?”

“People don’t fucking _do_ that unless they have an ulterior motive, Lapis! Nobody goes around selflessly helping total _strangers_ like a goddamn guardian angel. People are greedy! People are selfish! They don’t do things like this out of the kindness of their hearts.”

“Oh, is that right? Need I remind you that the only reason I’m here right now is that you took me in and let me live in your tiny little shit apartment you could hardly afford on your own when you’d never even seen me before in your life? Did _you_ have an ulterior motive when you did that?”

“Well, no, but I-”

“But what? You’re arguing that Malachite couldn’t _possibly_ be a halfway decent human being when you decided to let me live with you when I was a complete stranger to you!”

“That was just being nice! This,” she growls, motioning to the iPhone, “is too much. It’s too far! Think about it, you’re already indebted to her and now she’s just buttering you up.”

“Buttering me up for what? What could a rich drug dealer, or whatever she is, with enough money to blow six hundred bucks on someone else’s phone _possibly_ want from a poor loser like me?”

“I don’t know! That’s why I’m warning you! She put down her return address without our street address because she wants to intrigue you. She wants to make you curious so you’ll go and spend more time with her so she can reel you in to whatever she has planned.”

“You still don’t know that she has anything planned at all! You’re just making assumptions! For all you know she just wanted to be nice like you!”

“Quit arguing with me! You have to admit it’s a possibility! I just want you to think everything through before you do something stupid!”

Lapis clenches her fist around the phone, fury boiling in her blood. “There it is! You think I’m too stupid to make a decision for myself! Just like everyone else, you’re _so_ sure you’re _so_ much smarter than me!”

“That’s not what I said! I just don’t want you to get yourself roped into something you can’t get out of because you’re biased towards Malachite!”

Lapis scoffs in derisive disbelief. “You think you’re so smart but you don’t know shit. I don’t know how to explain it any more, Peridot. She. Saved. Me. It’s because of her I’m standing here right now. But of course that wouldn’t matter to you because _you’re_ not the one who got held at gunpoint, shot, and groped by a filthy gangster, are you?”

“I understand what you’re feeling, Lapis,” Peridot insists softly. “I understand that she helped you and it _does_ matter to me, but you’re thinking with your emotions. You have to look at this logically!”

“Oh yes, Peridot Olivine, queen of logic! Everything’s just a quadratic equation to you, isn’t it? Well, solve this: I’m going to see Malachite and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

The blonde’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head and she grabs Lapis’ arm. “No, you can’t!”

“I can and I will,” she replies simply as she steps into her trainers, pulling her right shoe on despite her crutches.

“Please, Lapis! For once, think about what you’re doing!”

Lapis glares at Peridot with malice festering in her sea blue eyes. “Fuck you.”

She pockets her new phone and her keys, tearing the cardboard flap with the address written on it from the box and limping out the door, slamming it behind herself with all the force she can muster. She bangs on apartment seven and waits until Jasper appears in the doorway to speak.

“I need you to drive me somewhere.”

**~*~**

Jasper’s Range Rover is a spacious vehicle painted a ruddy orange colour. Lapis cringes to think how much car payments must be but she respects her neighbour’s privacy enough to not pry. The ride is deathly silent and she can practically feel Jasper’s unasked questions crowding the space.

They’ve been driving for ten minutes when she finally speaks. “So where the hell are we going?”

“To a friend’s place,” Lapis responds, purposefully vague.

“What friend?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t want to drive me there.”

Jasper turns her eyes back to the road. Another pause swallows them both, only the heavy sound of the engine rumbling breaking the quiet. Lapis turns on the radio. She doesn’t like the song that comes on but leaves it on anyway.

“Does this have something to do with all the yelling between you and Peridot?” Jasper asks knowingly a bit later.

Lapis shoots her a look. “How did you-”

“The walls are thin, Lapis. I couldn’t hear much of what you guys were saying but I know _something_ happened.”

The girl blows out a long sigh, looking at the passing scenery out the window. “I know this... _woman_. Peridot doesn’t think she’s trustworthy, thinks she wants something from me.”

“Why wouldn’t she be trustworthy?” Jaspers replies in confusion.

“Because she helped me out and bought me a new phone and apparently people don’t _do_ that unless they have some secret agenda.”

Jasper continues driving and quite some time passes. They make their way through the downtown area, crossing over into the upper-class, western side of the city. The blonde turns into the lot of a tall, upscale apartment complex, putting the car in park and turning to Lapis.

“Does this have something to do with what happened?” she asks gravely, eying the girl’s crutches.

Lapis swallows thickly and nods. “Yeah.”

She turns to get out when Jasper grabs her wrist, meeting her eyes with a serious look in her amber pools. “Be careful, Laz.”

She doesn’t quite understand why the usually flippant woman has such severity brewing her gaze, but she nods all the same. “Yeah.”

Lapis slips from the car with the scrap of cardboard clutched in her fingers. _Apartment 303,_ she reads for the umpteenth time as she approaches the door to the building. She presses the corresponding button on the buzzer system panel and waits impatiently for the response.

“Malachite’s place, who is this?” a very familiar voice crackles through the speaker.

“It’s Lapis.”

The door clicks open almost instantly and the girl strides inside before the voice on the other end can say anything else. The lobby is classy and modern with patterned tile and spotless beige walls decorated with elegant framed paintings of flowers and wildlife. Lapis limps to the nearest elevator, jamming the up button with the handle of her left crutch. The glossy metal doors slide open and she steps inside, pressing the icon for the third floor.

The elevator is smooth and quiet and she’s quickly deposited on floor three, hopping out and walking down the hall to the maroon door marked 303. Somehow she knows it’s unlocked and pushes into the apartment to see Malachite in an expansive kitchen pouring a tumbler of whiskey.

“Good to see you again, Lapis,” she greets, smiling like wolf staring down a rabbit. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“The box you left at my place with your return address, asshole,” she growls in a more bitter tone than she’d meant.

Malachite doesn’t seem to notice. “You a whiskey or a bourbon person, Blue?”

“The only shit I drink is Stroh rum.”

“Jesus, you’re hardcore.”

“I don’t know what you rich people do, but I drink to get shitfaced. A couple shots of that and I’m guaranteed a nice, peaceful blackout,” she deadpans, joining Malachite at the expensive marble kitchen island.

“Rich people? You flatter me,” the woman chuckles, sliding a glass to Lapis. She has no idea what it is but she downs half of it in one mouthful.

“It’s hardly flattery when you live in a place like this. I couldn’t afford an apartment on this side of town with six months of wages from the shithole I work at.”

“Where the hell do you work?” Malachite grunts as she takes a sip of her own drink.

“Ever heard of The Temple?”

“No way, that’s the most popular club downtown!” the woman commends with a smirk. “How’d you land a gig there?”

“A friend of mine works as security guard there. She knows the owner, put in a good word for me.”

“What do they pay at a place like that?”

“The least amount legally allowed,” Lapis replies bitterly.

Malachite frowns, nursing her whiskey. A pause kills the conversation for a bit as Lapis downs the last of her alcohol. Subtle anger still bubbling beneath the surface so she speaks the only thing she can think about.

“You know, my roommate really didn’t want me to come here.”

The woman raises a dark eyebrow. “Why not?”

“I told her about you helping me out and after the gift she’s convinced you’re secretly evil and trying to get something from me.”

“How much did you tell her about me?”

“Pretty much everything aside from the Cheetos in the cottage cheese.”

Malachite’s eyes crinkle at the corners and Lapis can tell she’s choosing her words carefully. “Lapis, I can’t have you telling everyone about me. There’s a lot of people out there who’d pay a shiny premium for my head on a stick.”

“Malachite, I’m not an idiot. I don’t think you’re just a businesswoman, I know that you do illegal shit. ”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“No way, I’m not a goody-two-shoes like my roommate. You think I’m that dedicated to the law? The law wasn’t there for me when I was bleeding out, about to be raped by a Ruby, you were.”

Malachite smiles, a broad, fanged grin that sends an thrill down Lapis’ spine. “I like the way you think, Blue. I make a hell of a living for myself doing what I do.” She pauses, glancing down at the glistening gold watch on her right wrist. “Speaking of which, I’m due a meeting with a thug from the east side of town in a few minutes if you want to sit in.”

Bright blue eyes widen. “Really?”

Just then, a jarring buzz resounds through the apartment. “Well, someone’s early…” Malachite murmurs to herself, striding across the lounge to answer with the intercom at the door. “What?”

“It’s the Biz,” a baritone grunts through the speaker. “I have the goods.”

Lapis can almost feel Malachite rolling her eyes. “Come on up,” she replies as she buzzes the stranger in. She turns back to the girl with a mild expression. “Looks like you don’t have a choice now, kid.”

Lapis watches her friend loiter in the living room with excitement thrumming in her chest. Three heavy knocks soon rap on the door from the hall and Malachite unlocks the deadbolt, opening the apartment to a young, sturdy woman with broad shoulders supporting a bulging black backpack and dreadlocks dyed rainbow colours. They shake hands and Malachite grins.

“Nice to meet you, Bismuth. I’m Malachite and that’s Lapis,” she greets, motioning to where the teen stands at the counter.

The girl’s expression darkens upon seeing Lapis, taking a few solid steps toward the kitchen. “She wasn’t in the agreement,” she snarls, pulling a pistol from her jeans and aiming the barrel at the bluenette. “Who do you work for?”

Lapis keenly notices Malachite’s eyes flash with thinly-veiled fury, nostrils flaring. “She’s one of mine,” the woman quickly soothes with an affected voice, squeezing a tense hand on Bismuth’s trapezius, “no need to worry.”

The young woman eyes Lapis doubtfully for a moment before sheathing the gun back in her hip holster. “Alright. The deal, then,” she mutters, removing the bag from her shoulders.

Malachite smiles but Lapis can tell it’s fake by the strained look in her eyes. “Of course. Please, sit.”

The girl does as she’s asked and settles on one of the lounge couches, unzipping the backpack to reveal a plethora of firearms within. The bag is crammed with various weapons; automatic rifles, handguns, and a sawed-off shotgun. “That’s a few AK’s, three Glocks, the custom bullpup, and a shotgun, sawn-off as requested. You got the cash?”

Lapis watches in interest and awe as Malachite withdraws a bound a stack of bills from her cargo pants, handing it to Bismuth. She can’t believe she’s watching an illegal act unfold right before her eyes. Gangs are one thing but black market arms trafficking? A few months ago she’d never have anticipated seeing something like it.

She’s drawn from her thoughts by Bismuth grunting and throwing the cash back at Malachite. “That’s not enough,” she announces, face stony.

The woman squints at her. “What are you talking about? That’s two thousand nine hundred and twenty-five bucks even, I counted it three times.”

“The price has changed. I forged these guns; I’m going to need at least four thousand.”

Malachite’s eyebrows draw down over her eyes, face creasing in anger. “What do you mean four thousand!? We agreed to that specific number, you can’t just go back on our deal like that!”

“I can and I am,” Bismuth urges stubbornly, staring up at Malachite with defiance. “You know I could sell these to anyone in the whole city, right? If you want them, you pay up or I’ll find someone else who will."

The movement happens like lightning, so fast Lapis almost misses it. Malachite lunges forward, fisting a hand in the younger woman’s multicoloured hair and raising a leg, smashing the girl’s face into her kneecap. The impact comes with a sickening crack and blood freely spurts from Bismuth’s nose and lip.

Malachite cruelly tugs the girl’s face to hers by her rainbow dreadlocks. She’s seething with fury, face contorted into a petrifying, murderous doppelgänger of the lively woman who had been standing in her place only moments ago. “You think you’re hot shit, huh? Do you have any fucking idea who you’re mouthing off at, princess? I run this fuckin’ city. _Me_ . I’m not like whatever hood rats you play with down in _your_ neighbourhood. You don’t double-cross me, you don’t fuck with me, you don’t pull switches on me. You know why?”

Bismuth spits blood on her attacker’s face. “Fuck you.”

Lapis watches with sick fascination as Malachite savagely slams her knee into the woman’s face again and again, tearing some of Bismuth’s hair from her head in the process. After the kicks cease, she pulls her backwards to punch her in the eye, knuckles crashing against the beaten girl’s skull with a crunch that makes Lapis cringe in morbid delight.

“I said, do you know why!?”

“Why?” Bismuth reluctantly groans out, crimson dribbling down the corners of her mouth.

“Because I am unfuckable! You try and fuck me and I will come for your blood! I think you’ll find it’s a _very_ small world out there when I’m angry with you! I have some of the most terrifying motherfuckers in this entire city wrapped around my fuckin’ fingers. I’ve got a team of hitmen, of murderers, of borderline _serial killers_ who will kick down your fucking door and put a bullet in you before you can even cry out for your mommy! And you think your puny little ass is gonna come in here and lay down bullshit ultimatums on _me_!? Stepping into the fray, staring down the dragon, and trying to go back on your word… You better fucking think again!”

Malachite punctuates her words with a brutal left hook to Bismuth’s uninjured eye, releasing her grip on the girl’s hair and letting her crumple to the floor. She bends over and snatches the bag of firearms from the couch, waving it above the writhing woman’s head.

“These guns are _mine_ now, no fuckin’ charge. You might be king of the losers down in the slums, but on _my_ grounds you aren’t even half as useful as the crap I flushed down my toilet this morning. Hope it was worth it to try and squeeze that extra thousand bucks out of the most powerful fucker in Empire City,” she finishes, hocking a wad of spit out onto Bismuth’s collapsed figure.

She leaves the wounded woman on the floor as she strides to the kitchen with her newly-acquired weapons, dropping the backpack on the counter in front of Lapis. The girl stares up at Malachite in awe.

“Holy fucking shit…” she breathes.

“Hell yeah,” the woman retorts with a full grin. “That’s what that bastard gets for trying to fuck with me, especially after having the nerve to point a gun at you.”

Lapis looks away quickly. “Why do you care what happens to me so much?”

Malachite heaves a heavy sigh. “I’ve told you before, Blue. I like you. It’s taken me years to find people like you, people who think and work like I do. You and me, we both have the same drive, the same thing that makes us tick. Which is why I want to give you this.” The woman reaches into the bag, withdrawing a shiny, new assault rifle with a custom-designed skin of mottled teal and forest green streaks.

“This is what I call the Malachite special, an automatic bullpup rifle with my self-made colour palette. The only people in the whole world who own guns like these are allies of me and mine.”

Lapis eyes shoot wide, eyebrows high. “Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”

“You’ve got spunk, kid. I can teach you all kinds of things to help you survive in this city. Once your leg heals up, I can show you things that will ensure shit like that never happens to you again. What do you say?”

A grin breaks out across the teenager’s face. “Fuck it, I’m in. I’m going to fuck shit up, Peridot be damned.”

“That’s my girl!” Malachite crows, sliding the powerful weapon into Lapis’ hands. She steps behind the girl, squeezing her shoulders. “You’ll see soon, Blue. You run with me, you run with the big dogs...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i... think i'm done with this fic
> 
> i'm sorry, i'm out of inspiration because i wrote this during a really bad time
> 
> thank you all for your support and feedback, though, it means a lot <3


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